The European Mobile Phone Tracker issued by market research firm IDC shows that Apple’s iPhone is losing ground in Western Europe while manufacturers with low-cost smartphones on offer are experiencing significant increases.

According to the IDC report, iPhone shipments in Western Europe in the first quarter of 2013 dropped to 6.2m units, accounting for 20pc of the market. This makes a decrease of 5pc compared to Q1 2012, while rival smartphone-maker Samsung, on the other hand, saw its market share rise 6pc to 45pc in the same period.

Sony takes third place with 10pc of the market share while LG trails in fourth with 2.4pc. However, with 3.2m and 2.4m units shipped, respectively, in Q1 2013, both these manufacturers have seen significant gains since Q1 2012.

Source: IDC European Mobile Phone Tracker

Sony’s shipments have doubled while LG’s are up 380pc year-on-year. IDC attributes this to the second wave of smartphone adopters: those that may only be on the market for a feature phone but opt instead for a low-cost smartphone because that’s what’s more commonly available.

“When they go to a phone shop most of the options available are smartphones only; their friends, colleagues and family may have smartphones and are always talking about the latest apps, and the cheapest smartphones they note are most likely to be as low in price as the last feature phone they bought,” explained Francisco Jeronimo, IDC’s European mobile devices research director.

When feature phones are included, Nokia leaps into third place with a respectable 6.1m units to the iPhone’s 6.2m, but a long distance from No 1 Samsung’s 19.9m units.